I want to show you my newest sports card...

[arrowheadnation]

The sports card market is absolutely booming right now. I sold off enough of my other stuff to buy this. There are only 10 of them. It is indescribably beautiful.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

Every time you add a corner PSA gets an erection over the chance of murdering it. From what I've seen, I think you're better off at BSG but it could just be the specific cards I watch.

[Oz_Chief]

Originally Posted by Abba-Dabba

The parallels definitely have gotten out hand. The photos are even lazy shit nowadays. Usually, the same photo on the back of the card as the front.

You are so right. They probably have thousands of photos and they use the same one twice. We just have to laugh about it I guess!

[Pointer19]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

I've only sent in three die-cuts so far, and each got an SGC 9.5. That said, they were Select, so they're still mostly "regular" compared to all the cuts out of a Spectra.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by Pointer19

Awesome find, Abba-Dabba. Getting a decently graded card for less than $40 is worth it to me; cut out the time to wait for not much of a premium. I've started to buy singles on eBay as well. I'm a sucker for the Spectra die-cuts. Pretty colors, low numbers, and I've gotten some on the cheap. Plan to send most of them into SGC.

All fantastic pickups. Love Spectra. I'm a sucker for nebulas. I like that most raw sales are cheaper than you would expect for it to be.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by Oz_Chief

You are so right. They probably have thousands of photos and they use the same one twice. We just have to laugh about it I guess!

Yep, we can only laugh.

As long as we open our wallets they don't give a damn anyway.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by arrowheadnation

Yeah, sports card collecting has not been “for the kids” since the late 90’s. It’s big business. It is probably better described as high stakes gambling.

I started collecting in the early 90's with my son. We'd go to the card shows in hotel ballrooms on the weekends around the KC metro.

I had no money to buy anything. So I'd buy boxes and pull the rookies and put them in sleeves. Wait and see if any hit. Sometimes I'd hit on an Alex Rodriquez and everyone wanted one. I'd trade them an Alex for a card I wanted. Or one that my son wanted.

Then they started to overproduce the supply and the market collapsed. I ended up giving all my cards away when I moved in 2010. I gave Phobia 3 big plastic tubs of cards. We'd split whatever money came of it. Last time I checked the cards were worth thousands. Now they were virtually worthless. I still enjoy my cards I kept and my display that I'll post later.

[Pointer19]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I started collecting in the early 90's with my son. We'd go to the card shows in hotel ballrooms on the weekends around the KC metro.

I had no money to buy anything. So I'd buy boxes and pull the rookies and put them in sleeves. Wait and see if any hit. Sometimes I'd hit on an Alex Rodriquez and everyone wanted one. I'd trade them an Alex for a card I wanted. Or one that my son wanted.

Then they started to overproduce the supply and the market collapsed. I ended up giving all my cards away when I moved in 2010. I gave Phobia 3 big plastic tubs of cards. We'd split whatever money came of it. Last time I checked the cards were worth thousands. Now they were virtually worthless. I still enjoy my cards I kept and my display that I'll post later.

Damn, BRC. I hate that you and your son experienced that. I'm definitely in the hobby as a collector and not an investor, so I'm in the camp that hopes Mahomes autos someday drop to affordable levels for the guys just trying to have a cool display in their man cave... Looking forward to your next post with photos.

[tatorhog]

Funny thing, high graded junk wax era cards are selling for a premium, if you ask me. A simple card like an 87 topps George Brett wil fetch close to $50 in psa10. Kinda throws a wrench in player collecting. And PSA raised their grading fees considerably a few years ago so I don’t see those prices coming down.

So if you have cards, even junk wax era, that’ll grade high, it might be worth sending a sample submission to test your own eye. If you get some 10s, maybe bite the bullet and send in a bigger sub. You potentially sell off the ones you don’t care about to get your keepers graded that way. Just a thought?

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by tatorhog

Funny thing, high graded junk wax era cards are selling for a premium, if you ask me. A simple card like an 87 topps George Brett wil fetch close to $50 in psa10. Kinda throws a wrench in player collecting. And PSA raised their grading fees considerably a few years ago so I don’t see those prices coming down.

So if you have cards, even junk wax era, that’ll grade high, it might be worth sending a sample submission to test your own eye. If you get some 10s, maybe bite the bullet and send in a bigger sub. You potentially sell off the ones you don’t care about to get your keepers graded that way. Just a thought?

Juice isn’t worth the squeeze there, IMO. You either wait a year for your card to come back or all the increase in value is eaten up by grading fees, or both.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Pointer19

Damn, BRC. I hate that you and your son experienced that. I'm definitely in the hobby as a collector and not an investor, so I'm in the camp that hopes Mahomes autos someday drop to affordable levels for the guys just trying to have a cool display in their man cave... Looking forward to your next post with photos.

My father-in-law hand made the frame and the card pedestals by hand. My wife painted the ball field. I rotate cards through the display. Right now it looks like I’m an old school collector but that’s just the ones out currently.

I can’t get the pic to atta h to this post, keep getting a fail message

[tatorhog]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Juice isn’t worth the squeeze there, IMO. You either wait a year for your card to come back or all the increase in value is eaten up by grading fees, or both.

It’s there. Grading bulk is what? 14 or 16? I’ve filled a number of sets with my own subs and sold the rest of the sub

So if you’re doing PC you can supplement with grading stuff you’ll sell. The gamble is getting the grade. I just used the 87 Brett as an example.

I had a huge Bo PC and cards like the 87 topps could be had for $20 in psa10 and that card will fetch a solid 125 or more now. Junk wax cards will bring way more than they’re worth in high grade. But it’s a gamble no matter how you look at it when grading

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

My father-in-law hand made the frame and the card pedestals by hand. My wife painted the ball field. I rotate cards through the display. Right now it looks like I’m an old school collector but that’s just the ones out currently.

I can’t get the pic to attach to this post, keep getting a fail message

here ya go

[arrowheadnation]

Picked this up on ebay the other night. I'm pretty sure this is Salvy's very first card from the Burlington 2008 Appalachain League team set. This card itself is quite rare, but this one is even rarer yet as it's also autographed. I'm going to send it in to PSA for grading/authentication because it's in impeccable condition.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by arrowheadnation

Picked this up on ebay the other night. I'm pretty sure this is Salvy's very first card from the Burlington 2008 Appalachain League team set. This card itself is quite rare, but this one is even rarer yet as it's also autographed. I'm going to send it in to PSA for grading/authentication because it's in impeccable condition.

Very cool find! Hope it comes back authentic.

What are your plans if it doesn't come back authentic from PSA?